Embodiments of the inventive subject matter generally relate to the field of computers, and, more particularly, to system design.
Energy is a major contributor to the total cost of ownership for servers, and through the lifetime of equipment, often grows larger than the initial cost of the server itself. In addition to performance and system cost, energy efficiency is one of the key considerations for server purchasing decisions. In response, computer manufacturers target lower power and better performance per watt, even in high-end servers that traditionally have been designed primarily for peak performance and reliability.
In many high-end servers, energy management firmware monitors and collects system sensors and sends out control commands to maintain the system running according to a desired energy management policy. Modeling and analysis of firmware algorithms are employed to optimize energy management to optimize performance and power.